A NEW salary system at Birmingham City Council which the Government said would be fairer will result in 24,000 staff being paid significantly below the national average wage.

More than half the city's employees can expect to receive no more than #333 a week (less than #17,400 a year) when the single status pay review comes into force in September.

They include school cooks, home care assistants, teaching assistants and caretakers.

But 6,000 will be paid as little as #215 a week. Among them are porters, cleaners, street sweepers and receptionists.

The national median wage for men and women in the UK is #451 a week.

The new council grading system, which involved assessing 352 different job titles in line with a process approved by local government employers and trade unions, was condemned today as a disgrace by a former Birmingham union negotiator who is now a Labour city councillor.

Coun Kane (Lab, Kingstanding) said single status had replaced one unfair salary system with another.

"Any system that is designed to do away with the injustices for the lower paid built up over many decades but then ends up harming people on average wages is a bad system," Coun Kane added.

He called for the lowest pay grade, from #11,214 to #14,544, to be abolished.

At the top of the grading system, 569 employees will receive between #37,000 and #60,000.

They include service heads, human resources managers, auditors, solicitors and accountants.

Above that, outside of the single status agreement, lies the council's high-earners, the assistant directors, directors and chief executive Stephen Hughes, whose salary is believed to be about #180,000.

Council bosses told unions that they expected the pay of half the workforce to remain the same.